OUR VIEW: Stumbo trots out dumb idea

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October 26, 2009

Staff report The Glasgow Daily Times Mon Oct 26, 2009, 07:51 AM CDT

GLASGOW — There are dumb ideas and then there is Stumbo’s idea.

In an interview a newspaper in Louisville recently, state House Speaker Greg Stumbo appeared to flippantly throw out the idea of taking money away from local school districts to be used to balance the state budget. Not cut funding to the districts, but literally take money saved in their “rainy day” funds to overcome economic shortfalls like the one the state is presently experiencing.

"We do have a bunch of money that the schools have saved in their budgets, their 'Rainy Day' funds," Stumbo said. "And there's a pretty good sum of money there which will help us get through."

The use of ‘we’ by the house leader is totally incorrect. The money is provided to each school district to be managed by those districts and some of the money was collected through local taxes. The prudent district administrators have socked away cash for when financial times are tough, like now.

It seems disingenuous for Gov. Steve Beshear to say there are no plans to cut funding to public education when fellow Democrat, and partner in state government, Stumbo is pitching the idea of taking money out of those same district’s coffers. It smacks of Beshear handing the districts the checks from the state only to have Stumbo’s plan mug them of the cash as they leave the bank.

To be fair, Stumbo said the plan would be on the table when 2010-12 budget is considered, not for now.

Brad Hughes with the Kentucky School Boards Association, told the newspaper such a move by the state could be illegal because contingency funds include money raised with local taxes.

Never mind that the plan is political tomfoolery, or, at least, these leaders in state government must think the public is too foolish to see the end-around coming.

When school district administrator’s bark loudly enough to kill this idea, we imagine gambling will be paraded out as the savior of cash-strapped public schools. Don’t buy that argument either. Nearly every state government in the last 20 years that has passed legislation legalizing gambling or expanding gambling has done so in the name of funding education. None have followed through fully on that premise.

Here’s a novel idea for Stumbo — donate your pay to the hole in the state budget before stealing … uh, taking money from school districts. And convince your fellow legislators to follow your lead.

If each member of the Senate and House did not take their pay for the upcoming 2010, 60-day legislative session, it would save Kentucky’s taxpayers more than $1.5 million.

The predicted gap for the fiscal year is $161 million. The returned salaries is like throwing a pebble in a placid lake when it comes to making a splash in the projected deficit, but the ripple can be seen. That ripple would be demonstrating legislators would be willing to at least lead by example.

Meanwhile, Stumbo and Beshear need to be more forthright in their next plan of action. If gambling dies again in the Senate, they must find another horse to ride.

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